The grant has two interrelated objectives, namely to improve the biomedical research capabilities of the faculty and the University and in doing so, expose minority students to an academic-research environment that will enhance their potential for entry into and success in future professional and/or graduate pursuits. Such as approach can lead to a substantial increase in the number of minority scientists in the biomedical professions. Four research projects have evolved at Highlands to achieve these goals. The projects include: 1) Etiology and Treatment of Aggression in Children, 2) Reinforcer and Temporal Parameters in Associative Learning, 3) Yersinia enterocolitica: Prevalence in Stool Specimens, and 4) Competing Perinatal Care Systems: A Cross-Cultural and Cross-Systems Comparative Study of Nutritional and Sociocultural Factors during the Perinatal Period in Northern New Mexico. The students' research potential will be enhanced by exposing them to sophisticated equipment and modern research techniques employed in the biological, psychological, and anthropological disciplines. Students in all three disciplines will gain exposure to the use of programmable calculators and computers in data analysis. Additionally, the students will attend several national and regional research meetings, with some of the students presenting papers. Finally, the students' academic exposure will benefit in two ways. First, the students will enroll in an interdisciplinary Research and Strategies in the Sciences course, team-taught by the MBS faculty. The course will be designed to provide the students with insight into the interdisciplinary nature of research by making them aware of the approaches, methods, and problems confronted by various science disciplines. Secondly, an excellent Speakers Seminar Program will be conducted which will bring in outstanding professionals from other universities. Such exposure will be vital in terms of exposing our students to the many different facets of biomedical research and hopefully broadening their scope as to careers in biomedical research.